The Union Stock Yards Company of
Omaha (Limited) was organized in 1884 by William A, Paxton, John
A. Creighton, Alex Swan, Thomas Swobe, P. E. Iler, J. A, McShane
and other capitalists. The yards were located on the Drexel farm
about five miles south of Omaha, and were opened in August 1884.
At first, the plant served chiefly as a feeding stop for stock on
the road to the eastern markets.

The stock yards company also
established a small slaughtering plant in 1884. This was leased to
and later bought by the G. H. Hammond Company who greatly enlarged
it. The Anglo-American provision company opened a packing plant in
November, 1885. This afterward became the Omaha packing company.
Extensive plants of the Cudahy, Swift, Morris and Armour companies
have since been erected at the stock yards, and also a number of
smaller ones.

Since 1884 the stock yards at
Omaha have handled over 141,000,000 head of livestock. Omaha is
second only to Chicago as a livestock market and twelfth in bank
clearances among the cities of the country.

There are five large and six
smaller packing houses in Omaha.. The value of the meat products
shipped from Omaha during 1919 was $286,000,000 and of the soap
and soap products $8,000,000. The packing houses and stock yards
industry employ 15,000 people and have an annual payroll of
$15,000,000.

Omaha stands as the first market
of the world for feeder sheep and lambs. In 1919 the output of
sheep and lambs was 1,756,865 head, the value of which was
approximately $17,568,650. The total number of cattle, hogs,
sheep, horses and mules received during 1919 was 8,968,741 the
approximate value being $377,893,000. This was the largest year's
business in the history of this market.